Richard Allen

Richard is executive director of PalaeoPi Ltd, a small lean spin out company originating in the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford. PalaeoPi primarily develops and supports an automated photogrammetry platform, but also provides an image to 3D model consultancy. The company has been registered since 05 January 2018, and has been functionally operational since March 2018.

Richard is also currently the Research Support Officer for the School of Archaeology and Lab Manager of the Henry Wellcome PalaeoBARN. Richard has over 10 years experience of software, hardware, and method development from working at three leading UK university archaeology departments (York, Durham, and Oxford). It was during his employment at Durham University that Richard first became involved with surface scanning and 3D printing techniques, and also where he began his entrepreneurship by founding the Durham Archaeomaterials Research Center (DARC), a small tech facility that provides commercial research services.

After moving to Oxford with his research group, Richard co-developed an automated photogrammetry rig using Lego and 3D printing in order to assist in the acquisition of population level numbers of 3D models of dog crania for the NERC funded Dog Domestication project led by Prof Greger Larson. The Lego prototype has since been developed into an out of the box commercial platform that is the ‘raison d’être’ for PalaeoPi Ltd.

Programme sessions

14:30 – 15:30

Digitising our world: photogrammetry and RV

With the emerging AR/VR market projected to be worth over $200bn by 2022, there is growing demand for a digital representation of the world we live in and our material culture. This talk covers some of the exciting examples of how photogrammetry is being used in conjunction with remote vehicles as part of the monumental push to digitise our world.